


The Witchfinders

by SilverHeart09



Series: Series 11...but Thasmin [8]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Burn The Witch, Cuddling, Doctor!Whump, F/F, Yaz come on denim soaks up water like nothing, thasmin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:48:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21917026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverHeart09/pseuds/SilverHeart09
Summary: Rather than the Doctor, Yaz jumps into the lake first to try and rescue Willa's grandmother.Except she's wearing denim.And she can't hold her breath as well as the Doctor can.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan
Series: Series 11...but Thasmin [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1578505
Comments: 8
Kudos: 114





	The Witchfinders

Yaz listened to everything the Doctor said,  _ believed  _ everything the Doctor said, but there had to be limits. True, if the Doctor told her to jump off a cliff she’d probably do it without hesitation, but there was a difference between automatically assuming the TARDIS was hidden just behind the cliff and watching an innocent woman die. Yaz had joined the police to help people and had joined the Doctor to see the universe and try and be a better person. This wasn’t being a better person. This was watching someone die for no reason, no matter what the Doctor said about preserving history. Even Graham and Ryan looked uncomfortable, though she knew they wouldn’t dare go against the Doctor’s orders; especially after experiencing first hand how easy it would have been to stop Rosa Parks from kick starting the civil rights movement. History was truly something which was  _ not  _ to be messed with.

‘Doctor, we’ve got to do something!’ Yaz protested, refusing to believe there was nothing they could do. Surely saving this one person was allowed? Surely it wouldn’t change history  _ too  _ much?

The Doctor shook her head sadly and took Yaz’s arm, pulling her away from the lake. 

‘I’m sorry Yaz,’ she whispered. ‘We can’t interfere. This has to happen, just like it always happens.’

‘Come on, Yaz,’ Ryan said. ‘You don’t need to see this.’

‘But we can’t leave her!’ Yaz protested. 

‘We have to,’ Graham said, sympathy in his eyes. ‘We can’t interfere, remember?’

‘GRANNY!’

Yaz turned to the bank and saw the young woman she’d spoken to earlier, tears down her cheeks as she looked across the lake to the woman chained to the ducking stool. This wasn’t a trial, this wasn’t fair, this was murder. 

Yaz looked at the Doctor, Ryan, and Graham, already turning to walk away. 

A splash echoed across the lake and Yaz turned back to find the woman vanished, only a ripple across the water signifying she’d ever been there. 

Maybe her friends could walk away, but she couldn’t.

‘Yaz no!’

But Yaz barely heard the Doctor's voice as the water closed over her head and dragged her into its depths. 

It was freezing cold and so muddy she could barely see where she was going but Yaz swam on, water seeping into her clothes and threatening to drag her down. Her head broke the surface so she could see where she was going, cold gripping her skin as she struggled on. She could hear her friends yelling from the bank and vaguely she thought she heard another splash but then her leg tangled in something beneath the water and she was dragged down, swallowing a mouthful of the filthy water on the way. 

It was black under the lake and Yaz struggled against her captor, hands reaching down to tug at whatever it was holding her hostage. There was something at the bottom of the lake that felt like rope under her hands but it was stuck fast and Yaz couldn’t detangle herself; her leg tangled in it and not wanting to come free.    
She started to panic as she felt her lungs burning, desperate for oxygen. Of all the  _ stupid  _ things to do. She should have listened to the Doctor, she stood have stayed on the bank and let history happen not dive into the water like she was more important, like the power of time should bend to her will. If the Doctor had taught her anything in their travels it was that time was not a force to be reckoned with. The Doctor went on about fixed points often enough. She felt like such an  _ idiot. _

Not that it would matter if she drowned, Yaz considered; feeling black spots creeping in at the edges of her vision. Perhaps this was her punishment for interfering, death by water. 

She pulled one last time but the rope didn't budge. Her clothes were heavy, full of water and dragging her downwards, and Yaz opened her eyes as she tried to look up towards the surface but it was too dark, too murky, there was nothing but blackness above and below her and she couldn’t get free.

She opened her mouth to breathe and water poured in. 

\---

She spluttered awake, water pouring out of her mouth as rough hands shoved her onto her side. Her throat burned and her chest ached and the bright sunshine hurt her eyes. She could hear shouting in the distance but it was as though she were still underwater, her hearing blocked and painful.

Yaz bolted upright, water pouring from her mouth as she choked and spluttered. Mud squelched under her hands and when she looked up it was into Ryan’s face, calm though she could tell there was panic just below the surface.

‘What - what happened?’ Yaz coughed, water leaking from her ears, nose and mouth as she rubbed mud out of her eyes. 

‘It’s alright,’ Ryan said. ‘The Doctor got you out.’

‘The Doctor?’

Yaz blinked, vision blurry and eyes stinging from the water and mud. She could just about make out the shape of the Doctor, or at least a shape that looked vaguely like her, stood in front of the woman who’d been speaking before. She could hear her yelling and winced, worried about what the Doctor’s reaction to her own little stunt would be.

‘Yeah, she’s not happy,’ Graham said as though reading her mind, supporting Yaz with a hand on her back when she threatened to slip back into the mud. 

‘What happened to -’

‘Don’t look, Yaz,’ Ryan said, turning her head when she looked out towards the lake; but it was too late. The woman who’d been chained to the ducking stool was now slouched over it, soaking wet and clearly dead. 

‘Looks like a nasty rope burn,’ Graham said, pointing to Yaz’s leg. ‘God knows what they throw in that lake, hardly bares thinking about does it?’

Yaz looked down at her leg, saw the imprint of the rope wrapped around it like a snake and the raw skin where she’d frantically tried to pull herself free.

_ If the Doctor hadn’t saved me I’d be dead. _

‘Yaz! What the  _ hell  _ were you thinking?!’ 

The Doctor stormed over to them, soaking wet from head to foot, and Graham shrugged at Yaz. 

‘Sorry, we tried to calm her down but -’

Yaz was almost thrown backwards as the Doctor flung her arms around her and hugged her tightly. She was shaking a little from the cold and Yaz felt guilt settle like a stone in her stomach. The Doctor could have drowned saving her, she could have killed both of them by being stupid and idiotic. 

‘Don’t  _ do  _ that. You could have died!’’ the Doctor said earnestly, sounding more upset than angry which was worse in a way. Yaz wouldn’t have minded being screamed at, at least she knew she deserved it. A soft thumb rubbed mud away from her cheek and the Doctor's eyes softened as Yaz looked up at her, staring intently at her lips. 

‘Maybe we did calm her down,’ Ryan pondered. ‘She really wasn’t happy earlier.’

‘I’m still not, but now’s hardly the time,’ the Doctor said, grabbing her dry coat from Graham and tucking it around Yaz’s shoulders. ‘Come on. I’ve managed to convince Mistress Savage we’re witchfinders. Hopefully she’ll have a fire on, I’m freezing.’

She dragged Yaz out of the mud and her and Ryan tucked an arm each around Yaz’s waist, supporting her as they stumbled up towards the woods. 

The drowned victim’s granddaughter was stood on the bank of the river and she looked up at Yaz under the hood of her clock, eyes red rimmed with tears. 

‘Thank you for trying,’ she said in a choked voice, then she turned and left. 

\---

The fire had somewhat warmed her, but running around in wet denim was never fun and Yaz’s hands were still numb three hours later as she trailed through the forest with Graham and Ryan, searching for witches and using Graham’s amazing holly-tree berry tracking skills to hunt them down. Her teeth were chattering in her skull but she tried to hide it, wrapping Graham’s borrowed scarf a little tighter around her neck. The Doctor had seemed fine, if a bit sneezy, following their dip in the lake but Yaz could feel the start of a serious head cold coming on and she found she wanted nothing more than to be in bed with the duvet pulled up high over her head. Preferably with the Doctor lying next to her. The woman was a relentless cuddler which Yaz had been delighted to find out. She doubted she wanted to cuddle her now, though. She’d received a soft kiss back at the house when the boys weren’t looking, but the Doctor had had to pull away when the door had banged open, hands dropping from Yaz’s waist back down to her sides. They’d not had a moment to be alone together since.

‘I wish it mentioned what to do when you find ‘em,’ Graham was saying as they hid behind a bush and watched the mud-possessed villagers from afar, unsure of what to do next. 

‘We could probably sneak up on them but I’m not sure what that would accomplish,’ Ryan agreed.

Yaz, unable to stop herself, let out a massive sneeze.

‘Uh-oh,’ Graham murmured, and when Yaz looked up again she found the mud-villagers were looking their way, heads tilted as they contemplated their new foe. 

‘Whoops,’ Yaz said apologetically, the three of them walking very slowly backwards as the creatures advanced.

Bells tolled in the distance and Yaz froze, a chill coming over her that had nothing to do with her currently developing cold. There was no way the Doctor would allow any more witch hunts, no way she’d let King James and Becca egg each other on till another innocent person was drowned, yet those were the same bells they’d heard when they first arrived which surely meant…?

Ryan figured it out before she did and, as they sprinted back towards the village, Yaz found she was surprised this hadn’t happened sooner. The Doctor was amazing but she didn't half stick her nose in it at regular intervals and Yaz could hardly blame Becca for thinking she was a witch, especially if she was looking for someone to pin the blame on. The Doctor was a pretty easy target in that respect. She just hoped they’d get to her in time, though she knew the Doctor could hold her breath for a lot longer than a human could. Her heart pounded as they ran, panic tearing at her. If she didn't get a chance to tell the Doctor how sorry she was, how much she cared about her - 

‘Wait, where is she?’ Ryan panted as they tore out of the woods and skidded to a stop by the lake.

There was no-one there.

‘Oh my god.’

Graham’s face was white as a sheet and Yaz and Ryan followed his gaze, faces painted in horror as they looked up into the sky.

Above the trees, back in the direction of the village, a thick plume of smoke spiralled into the grey sky, black against the treeline. 

‘No, you don’t think -’

But Yaz was already running, feet hitting the ground hard as she sprinted towards the village. The smell of smoke was stronger now, the stench of burning wood hitting the back of her throat as she hurled herself through the trees, her cold long forgotten in her desperation to get to the Doctor on time. She may survive trial by water, but not even Time Lords were immune to flame. 

Even Ryan with his dyspraxia was keeping up with her and it was the two of them that reached the village square first, almost crashing into the villagers who were gathered around a burning pyre with the Doctor tied to a pole in the centre of it as flames crackled and climbed up around her feet. She was tightly bound against the pole and was trying to kick with her legs but to no avail. 

‘Doctor!’ Yaz screamed, but her voice was lost in the shouts from the people around her and she saw Willa looking helplessly at her, eyes wide in fright. 

The Doctor was wriggling against the pole and Yaz could see her trying to loosen the ropes around her wrists but they were too tight. A flaming log licked around the bottom of her coat and she kicked it back down the pile away from her. Yaz could see her yelling something at King James but over the roar of the fire and the shouts from the crowd it was impossible to hear her; her voice snatched away into the smoke filled sky. 

‘I’m sorry,’ Willa sobbed, appearing beside them. ‘I tried to stop it but I couldn’t.’

‘What do we do?’ Yaz asked, turning in desperation to Ryan and Graham. ‘We can’t let her burn!’

The Doctor was coughing now as the smoke climbed higher, head bowed as she continued to fight against the ropes. She was never going to get free though, that much was clear, and Yaz was about to push through the crowd to get to her when Ryan beat her to it.

‘Stay here!’ he yelled as he shoved through the crowd, his jacket over his head to protect himself from the flames. The crowd parted for him easily, perhaps eager to see another idiot human meet his end in the flames, and he shoved aside burning logs as he clambered onto the pyre, ignoring the Doctor's protests and the scream of outrage from Becca Savage. 

‘Hey, you alright?’ he asked, grateful for the pocket knife he’d started carrying around as he hacked at the Doctor's ropes, coughing when the smoke climbed up his nose. He tried to protect the Doctor with his body, standing in front of her as he reached around to cut off her ropes, but she only slumped back against the pole, coughing violently as tears streamed from her eyes. 

‘What are you  _ doing?’  _ she admonished him weakly. ‘Get off before you catch fire too!’

Her voice was sore, eyes red from the smoke and she choked on the smoke as Ryan tugged her hands free from the ropes, slumping against him with the entirety of her body weight and almost knocking him back into the flames as her strength left her. 

‘I’m not leaving you here, Yaz would kill me,’ he told her, supporting her as best he could as he stamped out the flames sneaking up around them. The smoke was billowing around the two of them, getting into his eyes and making him squint through the grey around them. 

‘If you save her we’ll burn you too!’ Becca screamed at him, and Ryan resisted the urge to put up the middle finger at her. She wouldn’t understand the gesture more than likely, but at least it would make him feel better. 

‘Come down this way!’ he heard Graham yell, and he looked down to find a patch of wood that hadn’t yet caught alight, providing a narrow route through the fire to the ground below as Yaz and Graham frantically kicked away burning logs to give them a space to land safely. Smoke was billowing around them and getting in his eyes and Ryan clutched tightly onto the Doctor as he staggered towards the edge. He couldn’t tell if she was even still conscious, the smoke was obscuring his vision, but he felt her grip on his arm tighten and he kept his arm around her as he leapt to the ground, landing in a heap on top of Yaz and Graham who awkwardly reached out their arms to try and catch them.

‘Doctor? Doctor are you okay?’

Yaz was patting her down, trying to shake her awake as Ryan and Graham dragged her away from the flames. Her eyes were shut but her face was twisted into a frown, and when Yaz pressed her fingers against her neck she could feel the steady beat of twin pulses. The Doctor's eyes opened briefly, peering upwards in confusion, and she smiled loopily when she saw Yaz before her eyes closed again and she slumped against her. 

‘Throw her back onto the pyre!’ Becca shouted, but when Yaz looked up and caught King James’ eyes she could tell he didn't look so sure.

‘If she was really a witch she would have saved herself you dingbat!’ Graham yelled at her. 

‘Ow,’ the Doctor mumbled, slowly coming round in Yaz’s arms. She was covered in soot and dirt from the fire and blood was dripping down her wrists from the rope burns she’d caused trying to escape, her own skin now marked in the same way Yaz’s leg had been earlier. Yaz tugged off Graham’s scarf and held it against her wrists as Ryan stood protectively in front of them when two guards stepped forward, swords in their hands.

‘Don’t even think about it, mate,’ he told them. ‘She’s innocent. Leave her be.’ 

‘The trial was not complete, she needs to go back into the flames,’ Becca said firmly, but Graham rolled his eyes at her. 

‘It’s not a trial it’s an execution. Call it what it is.’ 

‘She has suffered enough. I am convinced of her innocence,’ King James said. 

‘But your majesty -’ Becca protested, however she was quickly silenced.

‘Enough!’ King James bellowed. ‘The trial is over. Put out those flames, they’re making my eyes water.’

The Doctor seemed to be slipping into unconsciousness again, her body heavy in Yaz’s arms as she curled her fingers around her arm, but Yaz noticed she was squinting at something, eyes narrowed as she pointed with a finger towards something behind her.

‘Wha-?’

Yaz turned her head in time to see green flames flickering up around the bottom of the pyre, snapping and crackling as they spiralled upwards before disappearing. Graham and Ryan had noticed them too, though it was clear neither of them had any idea what was causing them, and Yaz was just wondering why Becca Savage wasn’t screaming about witchcraft when she turned and realised she’d turned herself into some kind of wood-looking type creature.

‘Um, Doctor? Maybe take a nap later.’

The Doctor blinked and slowly sat upwards, Yaz supporting her so she could see what she was looking at. She looked confused and squinted at the fire again, brow furrowed and eyes still watering from the smoke. Yaz could tell what she was thinking, and she had to admit the green flame and Becca’s sudden transformation were likely to be connected. 

‘Well,’ Graham said slowly. ‘I certainly didn't see that one coming.’

\---

It was later,  _ much  _ later, after the Morax had been defeated and Ryan had successfully warded off King James’ advances, that Yaz remembered she was ill.

It hit her all at once. One second she was in the kitchen boiling the kettle and the next she was bent over sneezing as her body remembered that she’d taken a dip in a freezing cold lake not so long ago. Looking down at her hands she realised she hadn’t even noticed that they were still numb from that morning and her head was starting to feel stuffy, throat scratching painfully as she coughed.

Graham popped his head round the door.

‘You alright, cockle? Got the sniffles?’

‘Yeah,’ Yaz sneezed, putting down her cup of tea before she spilled it everywhere. 

‘You and the Doc both,’ Graham chuckled fondly. ‘The pair of you have been through the wringer today. Might suggest a couple of days off to chill out, though I think the Doc is gonna be out of action for at least a day or two.’

‘Where is she?’ Yaz asked. She remembered how quiet the Doctor had gotten towards the end of their Morax adventure and the occasional sneeze that had exploded out of her at semi-regular intervals. It seemed not even aliens were immune to colds. She’d tried to hold her once they were back in the TARDIS but the Doctor had half collapsed into Ryan’s arms instead and had to be carried to bed. 

‘Ryan tucked her up on the sofa,’ Graham said, gesturing with his thumb down the corridor towards the library where they seemed to congregate in the evenings. ‘Don’t ask me how he managed it. I think he just sat and chatted with her till she fell asleep. Maybe he bored her to sleep. Who knows.’

‘The Doctor’s like any other person,’ Ryan said, appearing in the doorway and rolling his eyes. ‘Warmth and hot chocolate and she’s snoring like a baby. She was dozing off on me so might fancy a cuddle. Go see her, Yaz. You look like you could do with a nap as well.’

‘Charming,’ Yaz said, rolling her eyes and glaring at him, but she took her mug and headed off down the corridor anyway.

The Doctor was curled cat like on the sofa under a blanket, the fire blazing away cheerily in front of her, but she opened her eyes went Yaz walked in and smiled sleepily at her. 

Yaz sneezed and the Doctor frowned.

‘You ill?’

‘You’re not?’

‘Hmm, might be a bit.’ The Doctor scronched her nose and coughed into her blanket. ‘That lake was freezing. You’d have thought being set on fire would have helped but it really didn't.’

‘How’re your legs?’

The Doctor looked down at her blanket covered legs and shrugged. It wasn’t until they’d gotten back to the TARDIS that Yaz had realised how badly burnt they were. Her hands were bruised and rubbed raw from the ropes but they’d already been showing signs of healing. No doubt her legs would follow suit but they’d looked so painful Graham had insisted she let him take a look at them. 

‘Dunno. Graham did the dressings. They’ll be healed by tomorrow probably. You coming for a cuddle?’

She held up the blanket in an open invitation and shuffled backwards against the sofa. Yaz was unsure where, exactly, she was supposed to sneak in given that it wasn’t a large sofa anyway but the Doctor was drifting off again and, the more she thought about it, Yaz really didn't feel well. Perhaps a cuddle was just what the Doctor ordered. 

As soon as she’d laid down beside her, the Doctor shot out an arm and dragged her against her body, shoving the blanket back over the two of them and pressing her cold nose into Yaz’s neck, sighing happily.

‘This is okay, right?’ she mumbled quietly, and Yaz realised the TARDIS was lowering the lights for them. 

‘Yeah,’ Yaz replied, carefully wrapping an arm around the Doctor's waist as she let out a small contented sigh in response. ‘This is nice.’

It was quiet in the room, aside from the crackle of the fire, and Yaz could feel the Doctor's hearts beating against her chest. Her head felt heavy and full of cotton wool but the Doctor's presence beside her was soothing, as it always was.

‘I’m sorry about earlier,’ Yaz whispered into the empty air, believing the Doctor to be asleep and not expecting a response.

‘Why?’ the Doctor mumbled incoherently. ‘What did you do?’

‘I jumped into the lake after you said not to,’ Yaz said. ‘I almost killed both of us.’

The Doctor was silent for a moment, but then Yaz felt her shrug. 

‘You did what you thought was right, I can’t argue with that. Maybe take your jacket off next time though. Denim soaks up water like nothing.’

‘But it wasn’t right.’

‘No,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘But you’re still relatively new at this time travelling malarky. You come to realise what can and can’t be changed eventually, it just takes time. Doesn’t make you any less of a person for realising you can’t save someone, and sometimes there’s a little bit of leeway or a grey area we can exploit, but honestly I was about three seconds away from jumping in and trying to save her myself, you just beat me to it.’ 

‘Could we have saved her?’ Yaz whispered. 

‘I don’t think so. Even if we had managed to reach her she would have been dead by the time we got her to the shore.’

She sneezed into the pillow and made a pained sound as she pressed her nose a little firmer into Yaz’s neck. 

‘I never get ill,’ she complained. ‘Must be this body.’

‘If you’re trying to insinuate women are weak…’ Yaz teased her, and she squeaked as the Doctor sneezed against her neck.

‘Urgh, sorry. No I’m not insinuating that, quite the opposite actually. If that type of misogyny is what women used to have to deal with I’m amazed they didn't bludgeon every bloke that they met.’

She said this with feeling although she sounded even more snuffly and exhausted than before, and Yaz curled her fingers into the back of the Doctor's top, realising she’d changed into star-spotted pyjamas. She was soft and warm against her and Yaz was taken back to simpler days with Sonya, back when they didn't view cuddling each other as a taboo.

Not that her feelings for the Doctor were the same as those for her sister, far from it in fact. 

‘Thank you for rescuing me,’ Yaz said quietly, and the Doctor smiled at her. 

‘It’s my pleasure, Yaz,’ she said gently. ‘Just don’t make a habit of it,’ and she pressed her face upwards as Yaz kissed her softly; pulling her as close as she could until she felt her body relax against her own.

The Doctor was half asleep again when Yaz pulled away and Yaz could hear her breathing evening out. Every now and then she’d let out a quiet sniff and Yaz tucked messy blonde locks behind her ear, the Doctor's skin flushed and pink though whether that was from illness or the heat from the flames it was difficult to say. 

It was weird seeing her so still, she was such a whirlwind that it was easy to forget she was as vulnerable as the rest of them, even with this ‘regenerating’ thing she could apparently do, which sounded extremely painful to Yaz’s ears and hadn’t seemed like a lot of fun back in the Alabama motel, and as Yaz pressed a kiss against her forehead she could have sworn the Doctor smiled in her sleep. 

  
  



End file.
